Car flop and hot dogs!!

One of the hardest things to do- for any event- is fundraising. Be it for the Girl scouts, theater arts, or evidently- studying abroad.

Ideas can be hard to come by and proper, committed volunteers even harder. Sometimes the public is receptive, other times not so much.

The carwash held on Sunday was nothing short of a complete flop. We had a grand total of 2 cars, one of which was a car owned by one of the volunteers. Out of the 15 or so “volunteers”, 4 showed- 2 of which had been asked to help last minute (the night before/morning of), one of my bosses who lives upstairs from the parking lot that the carwash was being held, and another girl who- really- didn’t do anything but watch (even when we did have cars.)

We walked away having earned 11 dollars ( 3 per car and 5 from a woman who just felt bad for us) but had spent about 3 times as much in supplies.

It was a rather sobering moment as myself and the two last minute helpers sat, defeated on the stairs, waiting for our ride to pick us up. But I walked away with my first lesson of my study abroad experience and that was; not everything we set out to do will be a success.

Of course I already knew this in a theoretical sense, and had – of course- experienced failures in the past, but never had I experienced it to this degree. (I know, I know. How melodramatic!) I had held high expectations for the carwash, but ended up paying more to do it than I got in return.

On the flip side, this has not deterred me. Sure, I have wasted some money, and in this instance, more importantly- time, but I have not given up. Marking it as a failure and moving on. Today I’m playing the role of a food vender to a live arts festival, major fundraising attempt part 2.

Thanks to Mackenzie and Tryphena who showed up and helped shout at passing cars. Thanks to Jason, a boss, who grilled hot dogs (like a boss), and special thanks to Marketing Unlimited for allowing us to use their parking lot.

This next fundraising event will definitely go much better!
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Interested in studying abroad? A unique way to travel? Check out Amerispan!

You can call them at 215-751-1100, Email: info@amerispan.com

Or Skype: Amerispan (goes to their phones when they are offline)

Happy Travels!

Move Along

Move along, just to make it through.

It's really hard to get random things done when one holds a full time job and is in the midst of a move, I've discovered.

That being said- not a whole lot got done today. A little is better than nothing though...right?

First thing was first, I needed to get at least an estimated cost for this trip. It's easy to say "Oh, yes, I need this much. I know. I was told." But today, I sat down and actually figured in things properly. After all- there are passports to update, suitcases to buy, taxi and subway fares, and oh, food money to be considered. I came up with a nice oh-good-golly-what-am-I-going-to-do number and then promptly emailed it to three people to see what they thought of the total. The best friend, the father, and the rep that's been helping me from the program. Hopefully these sound-minded people can tell me if I over-calculated or- gulp- forgot something. When the four of us come to a consensus, I'll start posting the goal amount and where we are currently at.

Next thing was booking. Because of aforementioned full time job, its sometimes kind of (read as really) hard to get ahold of people. Especially when they work the same exact hours as you (cept get off an hour early, how is that fair?) and take the same lunch break. But today I finally made contact with someone from Walmart's personnel department!

The lovely lady, Debbie (or was it dotty?), quickly flustered through some questions about why I was calling and if I was going to be making a profit. After being lightly questioned she informed me she actually had no idea how to go about booking the little corner in front of the walmart doors and to call Melissa when she got back.

Melissa. Haha, Melissa. Melissa was a hard woman to get ahold of, since I've been trying for almost a week now. Finally though, 5 minutes before my lunch was up, I made contact.

The process for booking space right outside of walmart is alarmingly easy. After informing her of my full name, my exact intent, assuring her 3 times that I was not, in fact, going to making millions of dollars to replenish my personal closet, my phone number, and my chosen date- we were booked. That was it. End of story. No paper work or nothing.

She kindly reminded me, of course, to bring my own supplies, as she would not be giving me any and then wished me good luck. The conversation left me mildly confused but since the end result was us getting a hot spot BBQ location for fundraising, I didnt care much.

During work I grabbed one of the big-honchos and asked him nicely to be the Grill-master of the carwash event. He was so excited, he apparently decided to tell his employees. Always good to have an enthused chief!

The final piece of work done for the day was a shopping trip after work. Because, oh yeah, you have to spend money to make money. I picked up the needed supplies for the impending carwash (the location provided by my boss- thank you again, good sir) and finally made my way home.

Where I discovered I missed the Amerispan office hours by 5 minutes. Darn it.

Oh well, I'll try to get ahold of them again tomorrow to get some of my questions answered.

Interested in studying abroad? A unique way to travel? Check out Amerispan!

You can call them at 215-751-1100, Email: info@amerispan.com

Or Skype: Amerispan (goes to their phones when they are offline)

Happy Travels!

Save me, Seoul

I fell in love then missed the train.

For those of you who know me, you probably know of my desire to create a blog- but my lack of an interesting topic to do so always prevented me. Or you know, my eternal laziness. Either or. But with a trip to Korea looming on the horizon and an endless to-do list to get done before it- I finally found a reason to log my thoughts and experiences on the web.

Hopefully this blog will offer a few laughs, maybe a few smiles. Maybe it'll bring inspiration to take a trip of your own, and maybe, just maybe, it can help explain the processes of becoming a study abroad student and even answer some of the questions I encountered and had to seek the answers to myself.

This blog will follow my trip from start to finish. From the application process to the fundraising. From the moment the plane takes off down the the moment it touches back down in the U.S.

So this is to the crazy lads and gals who are interested enough to take a moment of their day to read a blog of an even crazier girl, and to the most insane- those who help me get there.
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Interested in studying abroad? A unique way to travel? Check out Amerispan!

You can call them at 215-751-1100, Email: info@amerispan.com

Or Skype: Amerispan (goes to their phones when they are offline)

Happy Travels!